SUSTAINABLE CITIES

Director, MIT Senseable City LabFounding Partner, Carlo Ratti AssociatiAn architect and engineer by training, Professor Carlo Ratti teaches at MIT, where he directs the Senseable City Laboratory, and is a founding partner of the international design and innovation practice Carlo Ratti Associati. A leading voice in the debate on new technologies’ impact on urban life, his work has been exhibited in several venues worldwide, including the Venice Biennale, New York’s MoMA, London’s Science Museum, and Barcelona’s Design Museum. Two of his projects – the Digital Water Pavilion and the Copenhagen Wheel – were hailed by Time Magazine as ‘Best Inventions of the Year’. He has been included in Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List: 50 people who will change the world’. He is currently serving as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization, and as special advisor on Urban Innovation to the European Commission.

Doulaye supports the foundation’s effort to provide access to safe sanitation to the 2.5 billion people currently without it. He is disrupting the decades long status quo in the developing world sanitation sector by reinventing the toilet and reimagining fecal sludge management business as a sustainable utility service. He is responsible for the Transformative Technologies and product development portfolio, and for shaping the Foundation efforts in birthing a new sanitation industry to equitably serve the majority of poor communities in developing countries. Doulaye has more than 20 years’ experience as a Sanitation and water specialist; a development professional and lead scientist. He holds a Ph.D., and MAS in sanitary and environmental engineering; MSc. and BSc in Physics and Chemistry.

Dr. Amir Aman Hagos is Minister of Health (MOH) of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.   Dr. Hagos is a dedicated public health professional and a physician with a master’s degree in public health.  As a medical practitioner, he has worked in rural settings as a clinician and medical director.   He has also served as a Director of Human Resources and Development, Director-General for Policy and Plan, State Minister of Health of Operations, and now Minister at the Ministry of Health.  

Jeffrey L. Sturchio is CEO at Rabin Martin, a global health strategy consulting firm, and former President and CEO of the Global Health Council. Before joining the Council in 2009, Dr. Sturchio was vice president of Corporate Responsibility at Merck &Co. Inc., and president of The Merck Company Foundation. He is currently also chairman of the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa, chairman of the BroadReach Institute for Training and Education and a member of the boards of ACHAP, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the Science History Institute.  Dr. Sturchio is also a visiting scholar at the Institute for Appliedb Economics, Global Health and the Study of Business Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University; Senior Associate at CSIS; a principal of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Arthur W. Page Society; and an advisor to amfAR, Intrahealth International, Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, the Global Health Group at the University of California San Francisco and Rutgers Global Health Institute. He received an AB in history from Princeton University and a PhD in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania. His publications include The Road to Universal Health Coverage: Innovation, Equity and the New Health Economy (edited with I. Kickbusch and L. Galambos‎, Johns HopkinsbUniversity Press, 2019).

Marco Kamiya leads global operational and normative work on urban economy and municipal finance, working with cities he supports financing methodologies related with planning, participatory approaches and infrastructure finance.   Previously, he occupied senior positions at CAF Development Bank of Latin America, the Inter-American Development Bank, and PADECO Co., Ltd in Tokyo. He studied Economics in Lima and Tokyo, and International Development at Harvard University.

Dr. Marguerite Nyhan is a tenured faculty member (US equivalent -Assistant Professor) at the National University of Ireland - University College Cork and a Visiting Scientist at Harvard University in Boston. Prior to joining University College Cork, she was a Research Scientist at United Nations Global Pulse at the United Nations in New York City. She has a background in environmental engineering, urban analytics and public health and is interested in informing the design of healthy and sustainable cities of the future. Nyhan has published research on using large ICT datasets for evaluating urban dynamics at a city-wide scale, evaluating emissions and exposures to pollution, and determining their human health impact. Her current work focuses on harnessing emerging technologies for sustainable development and humanitarian efforts.

Peter Hirshberg is a tech executive and activist who builds organizations and movements and finds value in self-organizing, distributed systems that work from the bottom-up to effect change. For over 30 years, he has served as a leader and advisor to companies and municipalities on the cutting edge of energy, transportation, networking, and economic development.

Salwa Smaoui is the Government Industry Leader for Microsoft Middle East and Africa based out of Dubai. Since February 2016.  Salwa spends her time with   leaders, policy makers and governments stakeholders in the Middle East and Africa discussing how to accelerate Digital transformation, bridge the skills gap and develop a vibrant IT Ecosystem. Before that Salwa was the Western Europe Windows & Surface Business Group Leader for 3 years.   In her role Salwa was responsible for managing the Windows and Surface Business Group in the 12 subsidiaries of Western Europe. Before that Salwa was the Regional Director, Middle East and Africa, Microsoft Advertising and Online. Salwa joined Microsoft in January 2006 as the Country Manager for Tunisia.

Zena Ali-Ahmad is currently the Director for UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Arab States. Zena has been working with the United Nations for the last twenty years, where she assumed key technical and management positions, including UNDP Deputy Director for the Regional Hub for Arab States in Amman (2016-2017), UNDP Country Director in Jordan (2013-2016) and Syria (2008-2012), UNDP Regional Advisor on Local Governance for Arab States (2005-2008), and Assistant Representative in Lebanon (1997-2004). Before working with the United Nations, Zena worked as a consultant for the UN, World Bank, USAID, and NGOs on issues related to poverty reduction, local development, and local governance.